A CAGED ROBIN 99 



which was in great danger of being burnt by one 

 of these outbreaks. I succeeded in beating out 

 the fire with a stick ; and while this work was in 

 progress, the birds remained as spectators quite 

 close at hand, and seemed to be very grateful for 

 the services rendered to them. When the danger 

 was over, they flew to and fro, taking food to their 

 young, which they had been vainly trying to 

 persuade to fly from the nest. 



Of all our British birds the Redbreast, or Robin, 

 is perhaps the most popular and well known, the 

 countries frequented extending from the Arctic 

 Circle to northern Africa, and eastwards as far as 

 the Ural Mountains. 



This is one of the birds that every country child 

 loves, while nearly every cottage and farmhouse 

 has a favourite Robin. The fearless ways and 

 winning confidence of the Redbreast win every- 

 body's regard. Nevertheless, they are ungrateful 

 birds ; for as soon as the cold weather is over they 

 will desert friends who have fed them, to retire to 

 more congenial fields and woods. I have a friend 

 who has a tame Robin in a cage, in which it has 

 lived contentedly for years. The only thing that 

 disturbs its equanimity is to have its cage placed 

 in the open air, when its song attracts all the cock 

 Robins of the neighbourhood, which seem natu- 



